The UK Resuscitation Council have announced their new guidelines for CPR, which will take effect on first aid courses.  The changes are relatively minor and bring the subject as taught to members of the public and delegates on First Aid at Work courses up to date in terms of current best practice.

Changes reflect the importance placed on chest compression during CPR, particularly good quality compressions, and to attempt to reduce the number and duration of pauses during chest compression.

When obtaining help first aiders are to ask for an automated external defibrillator (AED), if one is available.

Compressions to the chest to a depth of 5-6 cm and at a rate of 100-120 per min.

Click on the logo for the full report from Resus UK site

Set up the teaching area to suit your topic, so that all learners can see and hear you well.

Here are some samples of typical classroom layouts :

Theatre-style :

Great for larger classes when you do not need to have any class participation.

Pros : large number of candidates can be accomodated in one session
Cons : no chance of any class interaction
candidates might feel uncomfortable if somebody has to enter or leave during the lesson – remember being at the cinema when somebody had to squeeze past you ?

U Shape of tables :

Pros : candidates get plenty of chance to speak to each other
everybody can see the teacher
Cons : desks can sometimes appear to be a barrier between the class and the teacher

Cabaret style :

Pros : relaxed atmosphere
great for group based activities

Cons : difficult for teacher to monitor all activity
difficult for some class members to see the teacher

Check your timing

Just like great comedy all great teaching relies on good timing.

Check your timings are realistic, and have an extra activity in case you have spare time.

You can check your timing by doing a read through at home with a family member (or even to the mirror of you can’t find a volunteer), make an educated guess at any groupwork activity.  This will not only help you revise and get familiar with you lesson but also ease any first time nerves.

Get your timing right

Get your stuff proof-read.

Check overhead transparencies, slides and handouts for spelling, grammar and punctuation.  You might thing that your handouts etc. are great but you should always get somebody else to check you basic spelling and grammar, this could be a colleague, family member or friend.  Don’t just rely on the computer spell check facility, the machine cannot tell if you have used the correct “their” or “there” nor can it check for missing words.

If you are a teacher you have to have credibility with your students and a basic slip-up in grammar or spelling can erode this.

When teaching ensure you use SMART objectives.

What does this mean ? It sounds very wordy !

Objectives are statements that describe what your learners will be able to do at the end of the class/day/week.  Let your class know what to work towards and what they will gain from the lesson.

The SMART mnemonic is often used in project management in order to evaluate the objectives of projects,  but it can be used to by teacher to ensure that their objectives are :

S - specific
M – measurable
A – achievable
R – realistic
T – timed

Make sure that the objective is specific. In other words, it has to be focused on one specific learning outcome. Try to make it as simple as possible, do not use complicated sentence structure and terms. After reading your objective, one should clearly see what is the skill, technique, approach, etc. your students will be able to show by the end of your lesson.

Make sure that the objective is specific, clear and state what you are trying to achieve and why.

This months tip for those in adult education is :

Use your learners’ names when speaking to them or asking questions.

Getting to grips with people’s names is vital, especially when dealing with a new class and although you might find it difficult, here are some handy ways to ensure you have the right name on the tip of your tongue :

1. Make a secret seating plan - when you first start a new class, jot down their names on a bit of paper in the order that they are sitting in the classroom. Do this very casually. You will find that people prefer to take the same seat for every lesson, we are all creatures of habit ! This gives you the chance during the lessons to glance at the note and the look in the correct direction to say “Do you agree, John ?” and be sure that you are looking at John.

2. Call out a name – glance at your class list and if you cannot put a face to a particular name, wait untill you are ready to give handouts or course sheets to you class then say “Diana” (or whatever name you are having difficulty with) “could you give me a hand with these?” and ask the learner to help you distrubute the material to their classmates. This gives you a chance to use their name twice, one when initially calling them and again when thanking them, thus impressing their name on your memory

3. Make them leaders – plan a group activity and nominate a member of the class to be speaker or chairperson for each group, put the teams on the board and title them by the leaders’ names e.g. Team Donald, Team Fatimah, Team Anita etc. This gives you a chance to interact with people on a first name basis, for example “How did your group manage, Diana ?”

All this takes effort, but in the adult education sector service and personal interaction are vital.

When teaching something for the first time, practice your lesson at home in front of friends/family, they may ask questions which will help you plan your responses.

We often advise our teacher training candidates on PTLLS courses to do this.

It will also give your family a change from watching Eastenders !